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WHAT IS A 



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SCHOOL? 



IN DAYS like these when school re- 

 organization is a popular subject of 

 discussion, thefe is often heard such 

 terms as "attendance units," "units for 

 administrative and financial purposes," 

 "the dual system," "unit district", etc. 

 To the average person who has had 

 little reason to use these terms, such 

 expressions are likely to be confusing. 



These terms are generally used when 

 people ask questions like "What kind 

 of school district should we have?" 

 and "How big should our district be.-' '. 

 A brief explanation of terms may help. 



An attendance unit is the group of 

 pupils who attend one school. 



An administrative unit refers to the 

 school board and what it runs and di- 

 rects. The hired representative of the 

 board may be a one room teacher or a 

 superintendent or principal with a 

 number of teachers under him. An 

 administrative unit may be a one-room 

 school or it may be large enough to 

 include several school attendance units. 

 In other words, it is not necessary to 

 have a school board over each school 

 attendance unit, but there may be 

 severa^ attendance units under one 

 board. 



Financial Unit 



A financial unit refers to the terri- 

 tory or area over which a school tax 

 is spread. The size of the financial 

 unit would always be the same as the 

 administrative unit. But there may be 

 several attendance units within a finan- 

 cial unit. 



A financial unit in Delaware is the 

 state, practically, since the state fur- 

 nishes over 90% of the money for pub- 

 lic education. In 11 states the county 

 is the financial unit. Some people in 

 Illinois think that the county could 

 operate properly as a financial unit in 

 this state. Most people consider the 

 community as the desirable financial 

 unit. 



In the dual system, the grade school* 

 and high school organizations are two 

 separate legal bodies. The high school 

 is the second layer overlying a first 

 layer of one or more grade schools. In 

 the dual system the high school and 

 grade school have separate boards, sep- 

 arate principals, separate office records, 

 different tax rates, attendance centers, 

 etc. 



The unit district is one in which all 

 grades, one through twelve, are under 

 one school board, one administration 

 and one tax rate. A unit district gen- 

 erally supports one high school but a 

 number of grade schools. The unit 

 district is a common type of school or- 

 ganization in this and other states. 

 They came into existence very naturally. 

 Grade school districts in* towns and 

 communities merely assumed the re- 

 sponsibility of providing instruction in 

 grades 9 to 12. A good many unit dis- 

 tricts were organized. 



The unit district was handicapped, 

 however, by a tax limitation of $1.50 

 per $100 assessed valuation (without 

 referendum) for educational purposes. 

 Since a grade school or high school as 

 an individual district each could levy 

 one dollar without referendum, the unit 

 district was tempted to break up into 

 two districts. By levying separately as 

 grade and high school districts they 

 could levy a total of $2 instead of 

 $1.50 as a unit district. 



A good many unit districts did break 

 up, and so today we have only about 

 100 such districts left in Illinois. 



Fortunately, the General Assembly 

 in 1945 removed that limitation and 

 the unit district can levy tip to two dol- 

 lars without referendum instead of 

 $1.50, (on the basis in force prior to 

 the 100% assessment program) thus' 

 placing unit districts on a par with dis- 

 tricts under the dual system where 

 grade and high school are separate. 



Few Rural Unit Districts 



Much of Illinois' open country never 

 was included in a unit district. Rather 

 the unit district was confined mainly to 

 concentrated areas. In view of the 

 wide popularity of the unit district 

 with all major groups interested in ed- 

 ucation, it is well to consider its ex- 

 tension under the County School Sur- 

 vey Program to areas largely rural. 



At present it is generally known that 

 there are certain legal difficulties in- 

 volved in setting up new districts. 

 However, the General Assembly in 

 1947 will undoubtedly be asked to pass 

 legislation which will eliminate exist- 

 ing handicaps to establishing such a 

 district. This legislation, if adopted, 

 will be in time to be of use to the 



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county committees in making their 

 final proposals. 



Any unit district should include at 

 least a minimum of 150 hrgh school 

 students. The grade school attendance 

 units should enroll at least 15 pupils 

 per teacher and preferably 20 to 25 

 pupils to secure a more efficient and 

 economical pupil-teacher ratio. 



The accompanying sketch will illus- 

 trate what is meant by a unit district. 

 In this picture you will notice that there 

 is one high school and six grade schools 

 in approximately a ten mile by ten mile 

 area. This is not meant to place a 

 limit on the size of the unit district. 

 Looking at the distances involved in 

 the sketch, there is a possibility that all 

 the pupils might be transported to one 

 centrally located grade school. 



Attendance Unit Size 



The main limitations on the logical 

 size of an attendance unit are distances 

 from pupils' homes to the school and 

 condition of the roads. Numbers, size 

 and routing of the buses are other fac- 

 tors which determine the length of 

 time pupils spend on the bus. How- 

 ever, since grade school pupils should 

 not remain on the bus as long as high 

 school pupils, it might reasonably be 

 expected to have two to five elementary 

 school attendance units in a unit dis- 

 trict with only one high school attend- 

 ance unit. 



In an area that formerly contained 

 25 two-mile-square grade school dis- 

 tricts and perhaps four small high 

 schools, the sketch now shows one tax 

 and one taxing body, one school board 

 of perhaps seven members representing 

 the entire area, one school superintend- 

 ent over all the school attendance units, 

 a high school principal and a number 

 of grade school principals all subject 

 to the authority of the superintendent 

 and the school board. 



Sketch Shows Other Ideas 



The high school is located in the 

 village in this sketch, but it may as well 

 be located near the geographical center 

 of the district in open country if local 

 people have difficulty agreeing on a 

 school site. There is no weighty reason 

 why a high school should be located in 

 a town unless that town is the natural 

 center of the community. 



Four of the grade schools are located 

 in villages because those villages were 

 neighborhood centers. Three of these 

 villages had served as high school cen- 

 ters before the establishment of the 

 larger high school. 



The buildings abandoned by the 

 small high schools furnished needed 

 space for a larger elementary enroll- 

 ment growing out of the reorganiza- 

 tion. The grade school in the south- 



L A. A. RECORD 



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APRIL, ]94( 



